AURA GO

About the performers

Pianist Aura Go was born and educated in Melbourne, where she studied at the Victorian College of the Arts before pursuing advanced studies at ANAM, Yale University and the Sibelius Academy in Finland. Her PhD examined the application of Michael Chekhov's psychophysical acting approach to the embodiment of music. Aura was a Musica Viva Future Maker and starred in the stage adaptation of Paul Kildea's 'Chopin's Piano' in 2023. She is currently Head of Piano at Monash University.

Ian Munro, known as a pianist and composer, was also born and educated in Melbourne at the VCA before further studies in London and Italy. His solo performing career has taken him to over thirty countries. Specialising in chamber music from 2000, he was a member of the Australia Ensemble for 24 years. His compositions have been played extensively around the world since he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth international competition for composers in 2003. 

About the artwork

Originally from the UK, Ashley Cullen (b. 1998) is an artist based in Canberra ACT. Growing up in a large family, Cullen has always been fascinated with describing those close to her through sketching and painting. After finishing college and winning the John Cope Award for Academic Excellence, Cullen would go on to pursue her love of painting at the Australian National University, specialising in visual art and literature. In her final year of university she graduated with the ANU School of Art & Design EASS Belconnen Arts Centre Exhibition Award and the Eckersley’s Art & Craft Materials Award. Ashley's illustrations here are partly an homage to English artist Arthur Rackham who, by the early 1900s, had developed a considerable reputation for his pen, ink and watercolour fantasy illustrations, often specialising in fairy tales.

Excerpt from the CD booklet: introductory essay

I was dancing with a gnat: Music by Ekaterina Komalkova 

by Ian Munro

Originally, the title of this CD was going to be 'As I was going uphill', the title of one of the songs in this collection. It is a theme that features in two of the songs: 'As I was going uphill' (number 2) and 'I was walking uphill' (number 64). The first is a humorous song about the travails of a hard-working woman, the second about a young woman who yearns for her lover in the next village. This latter theme of longing or yearning is one that permeates many of the songs, as do themes of war, love, death, the natural world and the fantasy life. Ever since Russian collectors like Vasily Trutovsky (1740—1810) recognised the importance of folk traditions and the need to record them, the richness and variety of Russian folk songs have not just informed the art music of that country but inspired generations of composers to develop personal musical idioms that have in turn shaped the musical culture following on from them. Ekaterina Komalkova's set of 82 'Russian National Songs' for piano duet enters a tradition of piano renderings of musical folklore that began with Balakirev, Tchaikowsky, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov, who studied the work of Trutovsky and others, and inspired in their turn later composers like Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

It may well be that all artists walk uphill, but the slope has been that much steeper for women artists. History has shown that composers who are women have had their music less published, less performed, less commissioned and less critically appreciated. Amy Beach (1867—1944), one of the most famous American composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was obliged to wait until the death of her husband before she could set aside the pre-nuptial agreement that hindered her concert and composing career and so to step fully into the limelight. A common view of women composers at the time was represented by the comments of Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, who wrote in 1915:  

"It seems impossible for woman to create a beauty that must come from the soul and encompass a comprehension of the supernatural beauty that is given to us through the master artist. True, America has Mrs Beach and France Cécile Chaminade... But we have not opera, concerto, symphony, oratorio, or string quartet from womankind. ...They have not produced anything that could even be called near great."

Mr Damrosch was evidently a rather inelegant writer, but however cringeworthy or factually incorrect the statement (Amy Beach had by this time produced a piano concerto and a symphony, both well-received in the United States and Germany), we may at least appreciate Damrosch — actually a prominent contemporary interpreter of Beach's music — for putting on record a sentiment that tacitly persists in some quarters to this day, and for sparking a debate at the time that ignited a wider interest in art by women. Today, times have changed considerably and women are afforded many opportunities and recognised for their genius in ways that Beach might have appreciated. All this is good news for us all, and yet many are still left behind. 

For Katya Komalkova, a Russian composer born in the Soviet Union in 1959, the path has been steeper than for her colleagues in the West. Educated at the Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatoire, her principal teachers were the eminent pianist Evgeny Malinin and composers Roman Ledenev and Tikon Khrennikov. Her first exposure to international audiences came as a result of her 'Fantasia' for solo piano being chosen as the imposed work at the 8th Tchaikowsky International Piano Competition in 1986. The following year she won first prize at the All-Union Competition for Composers and was a rising star in the Soviet musical world. That world was dealt a major blow when the USSR collapsed in 1991 and Russian musical institutions were shaken to the extent that some disappeared. From that point, Komalkova focused on music for young people, composing for children's television, children's opera and early music education methods and collections. 'Russian National Songs' (1988) is one of the finest works of its kind in all Russian music and is an early and invaluable example of her extensive work in both folk song arrangement and pedagogical music for young pianists. Her work as musical director of 'Ulitsa Sezam' — Russia's version of the iconic American children's television show 'Sesame Street' — is wonderfully well-documented by Natasha Lance Rogoff in her book 'Muppets in Moscow' (Rowman & Littlefield 2022).

Her major concert works, all written before 1992, are an oboe concerto, viola concerto, sonata for cello and piano and a piano sonata. She has written scores for five feature films and over 40 short films, as well as 10 children's plays and more than 1000 songs. She is currently commissioned to write a new solo piano work for me.

On a personal note, I first encountered Katya's music through competing at the same Tchaikowsky piano competition in 1986, playing her haunting 'Fantasia'. It was a memorable journey in more ways than one, since it was less than three months after the Chernobyl disaster and, despite Mikhail Gorbachev's vaunted new 'openness' (glasnost), our Soviet interlocutors evidently either didn't know much about what really happened or were too afraid to talk about it, or both. The competition, at which I did not distinguish myself, nevertheless offered three remarkable experiences. The first was the simple coincidence at the drawing of lots, where I, as the first contestant alphabetically by country, drew number 1 out of the hat. The deeply superstitious Russians went wild and I was immediately surrounded by a media pack, featuring the following day on the front page of the national newspaper Izvestia.

The second was the opportunity to hear the opening concert, at which the 14 year-old Evgeny Kissin played a short recital. I know that I must not have been the only pianist there whose mind was crossed by the thought: 'what am I doing here?' The third, of course, was the already-mentioned introduction to Ekaterina Komalkova's music. A more beautiful mind among living composers I do not know. It is a privilege to call her my friend, although we have not spoken or met and have communicated extensively yet only via a translation app, since she speaks no English and I have almost no Russian. Still, it is a connection I treasure and hope that soon the awful situation in Russia and Ukraine might settle enough so that I may again go to the extraordinary city of Moscow and meet her properly. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these musical jewels as much as I. 

And the reason for changing the title of the CD to 'I was dancing with a gnat'? (Like 'As I was going uphill', the fantastical theme of dancing with a gnat or mosquito is treated in more than one song) Although the uphill walking metaphor describes well the journey of most artists, and Katya's especially, it also reflects the progressive development of the young musician and the carefully graded steps they must take, embodied in wisely constructed collections such as this one. It does not, however, capture the whimsical delight and humour inherent in Katya's art, a very Russian art that is heartfelt, often rich and dark, sometimes bold and striking and, more often than not, imbued with a harmonic mix of spices that is all her own. It is a music also sharing traits with that of her excellent teacher Roman Ledenev (another master of the art of writing inspiring music for children). All these qualities would make her a very good composer indeed but it is the extra sparkle that comes from observing and experiencing the vicissitudes of life yet retaining the humour and love that makes life worth living that brings her art into a higher sphere altogether.

Text © Ian Munro 2024